BOISE, Idaho (AP) — CenturyLink said Thursday night engineers identified a problem that left customers across the country without internet service — and in Kitsap County's case, 911 phone service — and expected to restore it within hours.

The outage affected Kitsap 911 services, forcing those with an emergency to call a 360-308-5400 or text to 911 throughout the day and evening after reaching a busy signal at 911. By 3:30 a.m. on Friday morning, Kitsap County's CenCom reported on social media that its lines were back in service but that there may be "intermittent problems with citizens attempting to call 911."

Centurylink said Thursday night the problem involved a "network element" that was affecting services but didn't provide details.

An emergency alert was sent to cellphones at about 11:30 p.m., informing Kitsap cellphone users of the outage and alternative number.

The outages reported Thursday afternoon stretched from New York to California and even temporarily shut down phone services at the Idaho Department of Correction and knocked out 911 emergency call services in parts of western Washington state.

Washington State Ferries reported that the outage affected its credit card processing, the Wave2Go web store and ticket kiosks at WSF terminals. The web store and tickets kiosks were unavailable for a time, but service returned Friday morning, according to an email from WSF.

Most of the trouble appeared to be in the West.

Verizon says it had service interruptions in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and parts of Montana because of issues with CenturyLink, which Verizon said helps handle wireless network data traffic for several providers.

Neither company indicated how many customers were affected.

Jessica Rosenworcel, a member of the Federal Communications Commission, said via Twitter that this was a "nationwide outage" and her agency needed to investigate.